鈥淚 don鈥檛 like the word revivals. It suggests resuscitating something that鈥檚 near death or something,鈥� said Tony-winning director Jerry Zaks. 鈥淲hat I try to do is pretend that it was written yesterday and given to me today.鈥�
Perhaps it鈥檚 that perspective that led to Best Revival Tony wins for 1987鈥檚 Anything Goes (starring Patti LuPone and Howard McGillin), 1992鈥檚 Guys & Dolls (starring Nathan Lane and Faith Prince), 2004鈥檚 La Cage Aux Folles (starring Gary Beach and Daniel Davies), and 2017鈥檚 Hello, Dolly! (starring Bette Midler and David Hyde Pierce)鈥攏ot to mention the Tony nominations for Best Revival for 1986鈥檚 The Front Page and 1996鈥檚 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
鈥淗appily, my ignorance about a lot of musical theatre has served me well when it comes to doing revivals鈥攐r new productions of old shows as I like to call them,鈥� says the director. Such was his success with Dolly that Zaks mounted a national tour鈥攃urrently on the road鈥攕tarring Betty Buckley as the titular Dolly Gallagher Levi.
A master of the revival, Zaks has also directed new works鈥攑lays and musicals鈥攊ncluding the most recent comedy Meteor Shower and A Bronx Tale The Musical. Zaks has four Tonys for his direction for The House of Blue Leaves, Lend Me a Tenor, Six Degrees of Separation, and Guys & Dolls. Though he started out onstage as a performer in Grease, Once in a Lifetime, and Tinytypes, Zaks clearly found his calling.
鈥淚 love what I do so much that if I get the opportunity to try to talk about it, I will just go on and on,鈥� says Zaks.
Here, we let Zaks 鈥済o on鈥� about the key to his success with revivals, mounting the Tony-winning Hello, Dolly!, how he runs his rehearsal room, and a clue to his next big Broadway project.
Why he became a director:
I think I love to control things, and I love to orchestrate things. When I was in Grease, I was in the first national tour [as Kenickie] and then I did it on Broadway, they used to call me Uta, because I would give people notes. I would behave in a unconscionable way. In fact, I would behave in a way that I absolutely prohibit today. I make it very clear that actors are to absolve themselves of commenting on or suggesting anything regarding to do with anybody else鈥檚 performance. But I was very guilty of that.
I was given the opportunity to direct something purely by chance. I was a member of the Ensemble Studio Theater way back when, and a fellow member said, 鈥淩ead this play. I want to play this part, and you should direct it. Long story short, I did. We did a workshop presentation of this play, and I experienced the joy of standing in the back and..being in the theatre from that perspective, and having been responsible for what鈥檚 on the stage, and I loved it. And pretty soon I wasn鈥檛 an actor anymore.
His directing principles:
It鈥檚 essentially the same process every time to arrive at the story you鈥檙e gonna tell. And it starts with the writers, me and the writers. That is, me and the script if the writer鈥檚 not alive anymore. It鈥檚 about inhabiting that material so that it tells the story. The new play I鈥檓 doing at Lincoln Center Theater by John Guare, John and I have been working on that script for over six years now. Once it鈥檚 ready, then we go about getting it on stage.
I don鈥檛 do big group meetings. I meet with the set designer and then I meet with the costume designer, and then I meet with the lighting designer. And I go back to the choreographer. Only when it鈥檚 absolutely essential do I get everyone together. But I want them all pointed in the direction that I want them pointed in based on the play the way I see and hear it. It really comes to me more by my imagining the life amongst the actors as I鈥檓 reading it, and the music of the transitions between scenes, and the music of the piece. I know for example, the way I wanted the first 30 minutes of John Guare鈥檚 plays to play, the rhythm of it. And there are several phone calls that I didn鈥檛 want handled in a conventional one person picks up a phone and another picks up a phone. Not dissimilar from the work that I did with Tony Walton on Six Degrees of Separation another John Guare play.
It鈥檚 really about hearing the play in my head, imagining it in my head. I pretend to be an audience and I monitor whether I鈥檓 interested or whether I鈥檓 not. You鈥檝e got about 15 minutes get the audience involved, to get them to care, to get them to want to see what happens next, to put a big smile on their face and make them happy and laughing. Laughter is the sound of audience falling in love. That鈥檚 how people in fall in love very often is someone makes them laugh. There are many ways to involve an audience鈥攁nd thank God for that鈥攂ut the way I love to get to do it most is through laughter.
With an actor in the rehearsal room:
The atmosphere is one of a room in which there is great respect, and a room where no one is allowed to embarrass anyone else. It鈥檚 as simple as that, and it鈥檚 private. I will monitor what they鈥檙e doing, and I鈥檒l suggest, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e getting too angry too soon here, I think, darling. What happens if you try pretending to be happy about this? What happens ... ?鈥� And I try to guide the actors towards finding the behavior of their characters that best protects the possibility of a happy ending as long as the script allows them. Very often an actor will get lost in trying to find out what it is they鈥檙e feeling at that moment, and it is not unimportant. But what I try to guide the actors to do is to discover what the behavior that those feelings dictate. You know, because I鈥檓 feeling sad does not mean I鈥檓 going to behave sadly. I may be feeling sad, but the most important thing in the world is to keep my husband or wife from leaving the room, then I have to dedicate all my energy not displaying my sadness, but having my sadness as a prospect of him leaving or her leaving the room motivate me into behaving in a way that will keep them in the room. If you can help an actor find the behavior that suits that character at that moment then you鈥檙e helping the actor. I also try to point out to the actor the difference between what the actor knows and what the character knows. Sometimes I鈥檒l just sit back and watch. It鈥檚 about the actors trying the scene and me reacting and shaping the scene.
A mistake he made that he learned from:
When I first started [directing], it seemed that everything I did worked. I began to mistakenly believe... I became very arrogant about what I was doing and forgot that the most important element in whatever success I鈥檇 had in the early part of my career had to do with the richness of the material that I was working on. And so, I hope to have learned something from having made that mistake. Of course, the education never stops, just never. Just when you think you鈥檝e got something figured out, you realize you don鈥檛.
A good decision he made that he learned from:
The good hard decisions for me, have always been about having to replace actors, which is as painful a thing as I can imagine having to do in the theatre. It鈥檚 someone that you respect, and I鈥檝e had to do it several times in my career. And every time I did, it hurt them, it hurt me, and it ultimately saved the production. It鈥檚 acknowledging that you鈥檝e made a terrible mistake. It鈥檚 causing someone else great pain, but it鈥檚 absolutely necessary if the production is gonna have the life amongst the actors that I was preaching about before.
Those good 鈥榚asy鈥� decisions [come] in the form of an idea. As I鈥檓 walking to the subway or something and I go, 鈥極h, my God, I can鈥檛 wait to try this.鈥� In Lend Me A Tenor there鈥檚 a moment in that where one character is desperately trying to slip a mickey to another character. He does it by putting some sleeping medication into a glass of wine that he gives to this person, and they toast and they both drink. I realized that it鈥檚 life and death to the young man who鈥檚 administering this sleeping medication. The last thing he wants is for this guy to taste, or notice that there鈥檚 something wrong with his drink. It was Victor Garber, was the actor who administering it, and I said, 鈥榁ictor, darling, you鈥檝e just put the sleeping pills in the guy鈥檚 drink, right?鈥� I said, 鈥業 think you want to make sure that it鈥檚 dissolved, because you just put it in his drink, so you want to make sure it鈥檚 dissolved. So what happens if you ... ?鈥� And Victor鈥檚 eyes lit up, because he knew exactly what I was gonna suggest, which is: Stick your finger in his drink and stir it. Just before they drink, Victor sticks his finger in the other guys drink and stirs it. It gets an enormous laugh, right? Now, the other guy, thinking that this is some local ritual, he sticks his finger in Victor鈥檚 drink and stirs it as well. Now, we鈥檝e got people really laughing hard, but that鈥檚 [a decision] that comes to one after you鈥檝e lived with the script, you鈥檝e lived with the actors, you鈥檝e staged it, you鈥檝e watched it.
About Hello, Dolly!:
When I was a kid, in 1964, or 鈥�65, just after I sort of started getting interested in the theater as an actor, I went to see that Hello Dolly with Carol Channing. And I fell in love with that show so hard I went back to see it two more times. I always dreamed of being able to do something that did to an audience what that show did to me. It portrays simultaneous love stories, all of which are life and death. When it鈥檚 life and death, and it鈥檚 well written, the result is funny, and the results are funny. And the big result is that the audience falls in love with these characters as they pursue their goals. I mean, Cornelius wants to get kissed. Dolly wants to land Horace. As long as you鈥檙e making that happen, the opportunities for comedy just present themselves. [The stage production] presents that story with an urgency that the movie couldn鈥檛 do. And also, the biggest thing is, the equation is what鈥檚 happening on stage plus the audience鈥攖he electricity.
[The lavish design] was a vision that I shared with [producer] Scott Rudin. When I was standing in the back of the St. James as a college student, he is a nine-year-old or ten-year-old sitting in the last row of the second balcony at the St. James. It didn鈥檛 take long to discover that we had this passion for the show and the determination to present it in as a luxe a way as possible. That is, the most beautiful costumes, the most visually satisfying sets, but the sets that also would move in a way that the story needed. And you never want to wait for a scene change. It was about a year鈥檚 worth of conversations before we started rehearsals as to what the show would look like, and obviously with [designer] Santo Loquasto. That was always the vision. But if you don鈥檛 have the electricity amongst the actors and the audience, then nobody will care.
On directing revivals:
The task is the same鈥攚hich is to tell the story. If you tell the story honestly and passionately and skillfully, then you鈥檒l avoid upstaging the material with your own directorial stamp. I think sometimes people鈥攊n an attempt to find a way to do an old show鈥攃ompromise the story of the show and sometimes also the tone. It it鈥檚 a good show, you have the benefit of someone else鈥檚 trial and error process and you鈥檇 be silly not to pay attention to it.
When I did Guys & Dolls, for example, I didn鈥檛 know anything about it. So reading it and listening to it was a tremendous adventure. I tried to use the history from the time it opened right up to the present to help inform the decisions I made.
Guys & Dolls, if you look at it is a series of alternating full-stage scences, beause that鈥檚 the way they changed scenery in those days: You had to bring in a drop and 鈥攚hile you were doing a scene in front of the drop, the set would be changed. I figured 鈥業鈥檓 going to be the one who figures out a way to do Guys &Dolls in something other than alternating full-stage sequences. Nope. If you鈥檙e messing with something that is inherent in the kishkes of the show, you鈥檙e asking for trouble.
The future:
John Guare鈥檚 plays Sleigh Ride. I鈥檓 developing Mrs. Doubtfire, so that鈥檚 going to be taking up a big chunk of my time. There鈥檚 a movie that I may be doing next year, which I鈥檓 excited about, but I can鈥檛 really say much about. It鈥檚 percolating. And then in 2020, I鈥檓 doing to do a new production of a grew old musical with a big wonderful person in it鈥攁nd that鈥檚 all I can tell you.
